MILES DAVIS - Get Up With It (1974) (2024)

Get Up With It was Miles' last studio album before he took a long break, and shows him at the absoluteapex of his mid-70s creativity. All the elements he had been experimenting with are here, crazypsychedelic guitars, Stockhausen influenced attempts to stretch time and space, futuristicpolyrhythmic African grooves and bizarre, almost satirical de-constructionist takes on common blues,funk and rock licks all combine to make an album that was way ahead of it's time in the mid-70s, andstill sounds modern to this day.

Songs like Rated X and Mtume stand out with their polyrhythmic wall of wah-wah guitars, percussion,bass and distorted organ recreating a futuristic psychedelic yet somewhat traditional African music. OnHonky Tonk the band stretches common funk riffs into pointillist abstraction by slowing down the timeand leaving a lot of space between their interactions. Maiysha opens with a loungey latin groove thatbecomes strangely unsettling and menacing before the song eventually breaks into a harsh blues riffplayed at a numbingly slow tempo while psychedelic guitar wizard Pete Cosey's solo sounds like it wasrecorded on a tape that was underwater and slipping badly, this is absolute de-constructed blues frombeyond hell.

Another stand-out track is Calypso Frelimo, this song takes up side three as it winds itself throughdifferent sections before it ends with a chaotic, almost punkish, double-time African jam that hasgutarists Cosey and Reggie Lucas trading harsh distorted psych-funk licks with weird repeatedspaghetti western type melodies. This totally bizarre song always has something new to hear in it'sthick collage of almost incongruos sounds.

Probably the best song on the album, and the most prophetic and forward looking, is He Loved HimMadly, a lengthy improvisation which takes up all of side one. On this cut Miles presents two guitars,flute, bass, drums and percussion playing a patient and slow unfolding of musical events that is partStockhausen and part raga before the percussion kicks in. Anywhere from ten to twenty years ahead ofit's time, this song would pre-date much of the ambient, new-age and trip-hop music that would followin it's wake. Brian Eno has often praised this song for what an effect it had on his own musical direction.

It is really hard to describe this album and do it justice, words like rock and funk etc could apply tomillions of albums, but there is no album like this one, fueled with a malicious sense of mischief, a darksarcastic sense of humor and tempered with a deep love for music, and a love for those that feel asstrongly about music as he does, Miles produced an absolute masterpiece, an album that never could,nor never will be repeated.

'Get Up With It' - Miles Davis (5/10)

Miles Davis is one of my most loved artists in the vast world of jazz music. Treading throughmore genres and styles that you could count on both hands over the course of his career,Davis was an innovator, although as is the case with far too many geniuses, he began tofall victim to his demons. 'Get Up With It' is a collection of tracks that Davis and companyrecorded over the early half of the '70s, and although it is considered by many fusionafficionados to be among Davis' finest works, it seems to me that the man's ravenous drughabit was beginning to lead to some miscalculations on his part.

The most noticeable element of 'Get Up With It' is its sheer length; clocking in at over twohours in length, it would be considered a gigantic album even by today's standards. Lengthcan be used in an albums favour somewhat often, but only as long as the music staysconsistently interesting. 'Get Up With It' features long-winded improvisations and focusesmostly on the noodling skills of the musicians, rather than an immediate sense ofcomposition. This is not a complete loss for the music, seeing as these are some of themost notable people in jazz playing, but especially when the ideas are dragged out over tenor even fifteen minutes, the noodling can wear thin on my end.

'Get Up With It' can be lauded for being able to tie numerous styles together, including jazz,post-bop and funk. The sound here is somewhat familiar to what I heard on 'In A Silent Way',featuring plenty of mellow, yet passionate improvisations over backing grooves. Whatseparates the excellent 'In A Silent Way' from this and brings that album to the next levelhowever is a sense of buildup; the feeling that underneath the improvisations, the musicwas going something really special. 'Get Up With It' is a victim of its own long-windednature.This does work in the album's favour at first, with 'He Loved Him Madly'; an intimatelyquiet and mellow ambient track that spans half an hour. While it is my favourite track here, Iwould likely go mad trying to focus on every moment of it, as its effect tends to be one oflulling the listener into sometimes even forgetting they are listening to music. It takes acertain type of human touch to accomplish that, but as one might expect, some morestructure and dramatic tension in the music would have done wonders.

'Get Up With It' shows the musical talents of these artists in great swing, and Miles proveshe can really lead a jazz band, despite the addiction that was eating away at him. AlthoughMiles Davis is a genius like no other, it is clear that even with his more acclaimed works, itwill not always mesh with me, despite the talent that is obvious here. An album in need ofsome serious editing, I can only moderately recommend this album.

Whereas Herbie Hanco*ck's Head Hunters material found him creating a mixup of funk and fusion by applying fusion chops to funk material, Miles Davis on Get Up With It sucks funk deep inside the black hole his fusion sound had become by this point and takes it to pieces, just as he'd been taking various rock traditions to pieces in his fusion releases in the previous years. His last studio album before he took an extended sabbatical, here Davis has moved so deep into the highly experimental territory he launched himself into from In a Silent Way onwards that you can't even see the mainstream any more.

Murky and inaccessible, it certainly isn't the best place to start with Miles' fusion material, particularly considering that - whisper it - there's more than a little padding going on here, the overlong ambient-free jazz intro to He Loved Him Madly being far from the only culprit (though that composition is an absolute space fusion joy once it gets going). By this point in his fusion experiments, Davis was actually getting the best results out of his live material - and even then, that particular well was beginning to run dry at this point. The ensuing creative holiday to recharge his batteries was, in retrospect, rather well-timed.

This was the last studio album Miles recorded before taking an extended layoff, and it's really acompilation of songs recorded from 1970 to 1974 with various lineups. There's some reallyinteresting thoughts in the liner notes from flautist David Liebman. I have to say that this is atop three studio album for me when it comes to Miles Davis recordings. And part of the charmis how different yet familiar some of these tracks are.

Disc one starts off with "He LovedHim Madly" which I believe is the center-piece of this recording. It's a tribute to Duke Ellingtonwho had just passed away less than a month previous to this song being recorded in June of1974. What blows me away with this over 32 minute track is how minamilistic and melancholicit is. Brian Eno is said to have been greatly influenced by it. I was reminded right away of TerjeRypdal's "Whenever I Seem So Far Away". It starts with Miles on the organ which Liebmannotes he did a lot to start off a composition. We get sporadic percussion and drums as theguitar comes in. The first change is before 13 minutes when the flute comes in. Just trippinghere as it plods along slowly. The trumpet takes over from the flute after 16 minutes and criesout of the dark over and over. More flute and trumpet to follow. I would never have thoughtMiles would have created a tune like this. "Maiyshr" is also from 1974 but is a catchy song withorgan, bass and percussion leading the way as the guitar comes and goes. Flute comes inaround 2 minutes then trumpet a minute later. Themes are repeated. Check out the guitarafter 10 minutes. "Honky Tonk" recorded in 1970 features John McLaughlin on guitar as wellas some cool sounding clavinet from Herbie Hanco*ck. It gets fuller 2 minutes in and there's somuch going on with all these intricate sounds. Great track! "Rated X" from 1972 features all themusicians from the "On The Corner' recording sessions. Organ to start and Miles plays this throughout. Anintense sound kicks in as the organ floats over top. So good! Man this is crazy with the electricsitar and dissonant organ.

Disc two begins with another over 32 minute song called"Calypso Frelimo" recorded in 1973 and it's similar in style to "He Loved Him Madly". Someinsane trumpet blasts in this one and it's very adventerous sounding. Flute arrives 5 minutes inthen sax around 7 1/2 minutes and it will eventually duel with the trumpet. It all stops deadafter 10 minutes then it slowly comes back tonight with plenty of atmosphere as sporadicsounds come and go. Organ and bass at first with percussion then flute after 15 minutes. Thetrumpet cries out mournfully over and over after 17 minutes. The tempo picks up around 22minutes and it becomes quite intense before 28 minutes to the end. What a song! "Red ChinaBlues" is from 1972 and it's very bluesy but just over 4 minutes in length. Plenty of harmonicahere along with brass arrangements. "Mtume" is from 1974 and it has a lot of percussion andbass throughout. The guitar is prominant as well and the rhythm is repetitive and really good. Ireally like the organ as well especially 12 1/2 minutes in. Some crazy trumpet runs late. "BillyPreston" ends it all and it's from 1972. This is a trippy tune with some electric sitar, guitar,organ, trumpet and a beat standing out.

A must for fans of adventerous music andespecially for fans of Miles Davis' electric period.

Given Miles Davis has such a large discography, it'll be virtually impossible to know everything he's released, and I know there'splenty of titles, even in this day, that I'm completely unaware of. I only knew of Get Up With It around 2004. Another one ofthose neglected Miles albums no one talks about, unlike say, Bitches Brew. It was 120 minutes long, so it had to be a triple LPset. Wrong! It's a double LP set, probably the lengthiest double ever released. Given it was out of print for so long (Sony finallygot to reissuing it in the States only in 2000) original LPs aren't always easy to come by. I finally got a copy, but I don't regret it.This album consisted of material recorded in 1973 and '74, plus Jack Johnson and On the Corner outtakes. He just couldn't getthose fit on those albums, so I'm happy he didn't let them stay in the archives. I'm sure people were scared off by this albumbecause it starts with "He Love Him Madly". A tribute to Duke Ellington, who just then-recently passed away, it's clear it reallydevastated Miles big time. That caused him to record a slow pace, spacy, eerie and ominous piece where the organ, rather thantrumpet dominates. It does pick up some, but the tempo is pretty much slow, and I'm sure that scared off a lot of potentiallisteners back in the day. I get it: mood and atmosphere was what he was more concerned here, kinda like what TangerineDream did for Zeit, but unlike Zeit, there is at least drums and a bit of rhythm. But the album really picks up steam after,exploring funk, Latin, blues, calypso, you name it, and do it very well. "Calypso Frelimo" is cut from much the same cloth asReturn to Forever's "Captain Senor Mouse", except it's 32 minutes long. It starts off with some calypso stuff on the organ,but then quickly goes into extended jams, with heavy emphasis on percussion. This frequently sounds, to my ears, if the DrumTower at the Oregon Country Fair (Drum Tower is a space for people to play their drums at, that is, bongos, congas, NativeAmerican drums, darbukas, and so on) was occupied by professional jazz players, including sax and various percussion players,and an organist. (For those who don't know, the Oregon Country Fair is a yearly hippie fair held outside of Eugene, Oregon, andyou know you nearing the Drum Tower when you hear a lots of hand drums playing). Of course, Chick Corea & Company wouldhave never though to extend their "Senor Mouse" to over a half an hour long, but Miles did with "Calypso Frelimo". There aretimes the album gets experimental, like on "Rated X" while the blues influence is felt on "Honky Tonky" and Red China Blues".Apparently guitarist Pete Cosey had an experience in blues and R&B recording for Chess Records (Howlin' Wolf and MuddyWaters giving him blues experience), but his guitar playing here is much more rock-oriented than blues. I have often whatcompelled Miles to start the album off with "He Loves Him Madly", while I enjoy it, many may not. Regardless, I really love thevariety covered on this album. Even Robert Christgau gave it an A- (given he was a big fan of Miles David to begin with), verymuch the same rating he gave for the much more popular Bitches Brew. It don't get the recognition of many of his otheralbums, but I very much highly recommend it. I can't give it a five star only because "He Loves Him Madly" can be a bit hardgoing.